Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has weighed and measured the recent destruction that has put the Dow Jones Industrial Average on track for its worst December since 1931, and he appears to have drawn his own conclusions as to the impetus.

In fact, if the Dow finishes at its current level, down about 7%, it would mark the worst December since 1931 when it fell 17.01%, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

The bond market’s gauge of inflation expectations slid to its lowest level since last December after crude prices slumped to a 16-month low.

While the bond market’s inflation gauge tends to follow the turbulent moves in the crude oil market, making it too volatile for the central bank as a reliable gauge of inflation, in recent speeches several members of the Federal Open Market Committee, including St. Louis Fed President James Bullard and Fed Vice Chairman Richard Clarida, have cited the merits of watching the market-based measure of price prospects.

World stock markets, the U.S. dollar and oil prices tumbled on Tuesday as fears about a slowing global economy gripped investors, just as the U.S. Federal Reserve looks set this week to deliver its fourth interest rate hike of the year.

“We’re facing the biggest December fall in U.S. stocks since 1931 and this is striking and worrying at the same time,” said Chris Bailey, European strategist at international financial services firm Raymond James. “We are at a regime shift moment and the debate is how big that regime shift will be.”

Financial markets have been nervously eyeing the US Federal Reserve as it prepares to raise interest rates for the fourth time this year on Wednesday, with big investors fearing that higher borrowing costs could damage the global economy.

Oil prices have had a rollercoaster couple of years, so a surge or sudden drop in the price of crude could pose problems for the world economy.

Asian stocks fell on Tuesday following a major speech by Chinese President Xi Jinping, tracking losses on Wall Street as traders braced for an interest rate hike by Federal Reserve.

In his speech in Beijing, Xi called for China to “stay the course” on economic reforms, adding a defiant note that “no one is in a position to dictate to the Chinese people what should or should not be done,” an apparent job at the Trump administration’s efforts to force a trade deal.

When the U.S. Federal Reserve kept lifting interest rates this year, a world away in Jakarta profits dropped to next to nothing at Andy Kurniawan’s shop selling collectible action figures.

Months later, three or four of the 30 employees at TAAD, a light-switch manufacturer on the working-class outskirts of Buenos Aires, were about to lose their jobs. The company’s president, Daniel Araujo, said the plunging local peso currency made raw copper and plastics the firm imports so expensive that he had to halve production.

China and Germany have major disagreements over protection of intellectual property and government subsidies to Chinese state-owned companies.

Germany is planning to tighten rules on share purchases in German firms by non-EU companies, business daily Handelsblatt reported on Sunday. Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet plans to approve the law change on Wednesday and send it to parliament, the paper said.

The number of iPhones shipped in India has fallen 40% so far this year compared with 2017, and Apple’s market share there has dropped to about 1% from about 2%, research firm Canalys estimates.

The declines followed reductions in planned iPhone production and analysts’ reports that consumer interest in new iPhones is waning. In price-sensitive markets such as India or African countries, most people buy phones outright and choose pay-as-you-go plans.

The support of wealthy foreign investors like Japan’s SoftBank, its affiliate Vision Fund, and China’s Ant Financial, is also encouraging Indian startups to think big.

There’s a second windfall too: Australians eat out about ten times more every month than a middle-class Indian, says one industry insider. Even if the cut of fees demanded by Zomato or Ola is close to the take-rate in India, the absolute amount they can pocket per a delivery or taxi ride is higher almost anywhere else, because of the country’s low per-capita income.

Oil prices fell 4 percent on Tuesday, dropping for a third consecutive session as reports of swelling inventories and forecasts of record U.S. and Russian output combined with a sharp sell-off in global stock markets.

North Sea Brent crude lost $2.41, or 4.0 percent, to a low of $57.20, a 14-month low, and last traded around $58.06, down $1.55.

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The oil-rich UAE is home to millions of expatriate workers of all levels and nationalities, lured by tax-free salaries and year-round sunshine. The majority of foreigners live in the main business hubs of Abu Dhabi and Dubai, the latter a major tourist destination famous for luxury beach resorts, soaring buildings and glossy shopping malls.

U.S. stock index futures pointed to a higher open Tuesday, after a multisession rout took the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 to their lowest levels since the autumn of 2017.

Read: Here’s why the Fed won’t save the stock market, despite its worst December start since 1980. Persistent fears that sluggish global growth will wash up on U.S. shores continues to unsettle investors and has thus far resulted in the worst equity market selloff in recent memory, primarily underpinned by rising interest rates and trade-war jitters.

U.S. stocks were trading flat in the final hour of exchange Tuesday, with all three major benchmarks turning negative after attempting a modest rally earlier in the day, and as investors remain laser-focused on the Federal Reserve, which begins its final policy meeting of the year Tuesday, with a policy announcement set for Wednesday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.50% edged up 40 points, or 0.2%, at 23,640, while S&P 500 index SPX, +0.18% was down 4 points, or 0.2% at 2,541.

The Greenlandic prime minister and foreign minister refused to speak to us about their government's attitude to China, but a former prime minister, Kuupik Kleist, told us he thought it would be good for Greenland.

There'll be pressure from the Danes and Americans to ensure the Chinese bid doesn't succeed, but that won't stop China's involvement in Greenland. The Greenlandic government has decided to build three big international airports capable of taking large passenger jets.